A Month of One-a-Day Challenge

On June 25th, I set myself a personal challenge to do something each day in the studio. Anything at all, as long as I got in there and worked, even if for a short time.  The shirt was the first project, which let to the fabric brooches, then to the Hedge Witch, then to Milly, the ghost doll.  What began as short periods of time, turned into hours each day.  And since June 25th, there has only been one day skipped.

Now, I need to put aside all of the leetle feegurs for a while and 

let them meditate on their failures.  

works in progress

Finished Milly's (ghost dolly) 

little gourd nook.

 Finished Hepzibah,

the cone witch.

 And one little black cat.

I've done more work on his box,

which looks better now.

 detail

 And another black cat.

 Little trick or treater.

Bad angle for this picture.

 detail

I've done a little more work on the White Witch, but nothing lately on Frank-N-Stein.

In the meantime, one option is to return to the Spell Book I started before becoming distracted with Halloween creatures.  

Remember this from July 9?  Using joint compound, I started altering a book to use as a Halloween prop, but got distracted with all of my witches and trick or treat figures. 

I've worked on this cover several times--adding compound, sanding a little, painting, and sealing (multiple times).   I've worked on the paper clay title that will be attached later.  I've done a very little work on pages; gessoed a couple of pages, let them dry, and so on.  I've put in some end papers using scrapbook paper, but didn't do a very good job, and they are a little wrinkly.  

After jotting down a list of ideas for book pages, I find myself daunted by the task of actually creating them, or perhaps, by fear of screwing up.  This fear of screwing up always haunts me whether in working with dolls or sewing.  If I do "this," will it mess up everything else I've done?  

Also, I find that things that look simple--and often are simple--require a certain skill or creative/artistic eye that I lack.  Yes, I can do it, but it simply doesn't work.  Now, I'm waiting on some courage to tackle the pages that really should be fairly easy, but that I'm afraid will look crappy.  The silly thing is that the book is simply a Halloween prop, and all of my work is for my own enjoyment.  

My One-a-Day Challenge has been successful.  I've come back to the studio refreshed, with plenty of projects in mind, and have thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Working in several different mediums at the same time creates chaos, yet moving from one medium to another provides an outlet when one project hits a roadblock.  Can't think of what to do with this figure?  Move back to the sewing machine or embroidery.  Tired of working with fabric, consider ideas for the Spell Book.  Works for me.

Reading?  Yes, of course.  Not as much, but I've got such a que of NetGalley ebooks on my Kindle and several good ARCs have arrived in the mail.

Have a great weekend, y'all!